Latino Rebranded: Social Media and Latinos

Andrew Orci Talks About New Survey on Hispanic Marketing

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Only two in 10 engage Hispanics on the social Web

The majority of US companies recognize that Hispanics, who make up about 15% of the country’s population, will have an effect on industry trends in the next five years. But few are marketing directly to them, according to the “2010 Hispanic Marketing Trends Survey” from Orcí.

Still fewer are marketing to them on social networking sites: 78% of US companies said they had not used any social media to engage Hispanics. Those marketers that had done so primarily used Facebook and Twitter.

“Hispanics are tech-savvy, young trendsetters with incredible spending power,” said Hector Orci, co-founder and chairman of the agency, in a statement. Nearly four in five socialize online, the study found.

Summer 2009 research from AOL Advertising indicated that Hispanic users were more likely than average to go online at nearly every stage in the purchase cycle and considered the Internet a vital source of information on a variety of topics.

Still, the vast majority of marketers surveyed by Orcí simply did not know whether social media was a good way to engage the Hispanic population, though they were more likely to say yes than no.

Overall, just 18% of respondents planned to increase their Hispanic marketing spending in the next year. The primary reason companies said they did not market to Hispanics more was that the return on investment would not be justified (38%), followed by the opinion that their current marketing was sufficient for the Hispanic market (29%). Budget was also an issue for 21% of companies surveyed.

“For the last 30 years a minority of companies that have been smart enough to take advantage of engaging Hispanic consumers have seen their efforts make a difference to their bottom line,” said Mr. Orci. “Now more than ever, businesses need to think about how to tap into the opportunity the Hispanic market presents.”

(source: emarketer.com)

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Subtitle:  “Give me back that Filet O’ Fish, give me that fish.”

There’s a common piece of advice to “fish where the fish are.”  While no doubt this is a great short term strategy, but eventually the resource will dry up.  Why?  Because, soon enough everyone will start fishing in the same spot!

There’s some recent data released by HitWise that shows Facebook touting 50% of web visits and Twitter only showing 1% which may cause people to run to Facebook in crowds.  (Look at my other post from today for technical reasons why this data is not reliable.)

1.	Facebook	50.15%
2.	YouTube	15.21%
3.	MySpace	15.08%
4.	Tagged	1.16%
5.	Twitter	1.14%

So, you look at the above chart and see the heavy usage of Facebook, and you run off to establish your presence.  What’s wrong with that, you may ask…you reason: most of the traffic is there, so I want to go where I will have more return.

Personally, I don’t believe in chasing traffic.  I believe in making traffic, come to me.  Chasing traffic will drive you nuts (traffic is the web currency equivalent of money).  Rather, identify your strengths, develop what makes you unique, create value and as a side effect traffic will follow.

Promoting and networking are fine, but without taking a self inventory and honing your assets you’ll never break away from the crowd.  You may reap the rewards of hard work, but you’ll won’t make YOUR mark or unique contribution.

If you must go or do what others are doing, then it’s okay to do so for a time.  However, identify the time to breakaway and make your own inroads, plans, conclusions, methods, philosophy…make your own rules.  You’ll never have to worry about it being too crowded, because no one can ever do what you do best – and that’s being you!

Being your true self, is the key to generating traffic.

What do you think?  Am I wrong…half wrong – half right?  How do you generate lasting traffic?

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Subtitle: Levels of Truth in Data Representation of Social Networking Sites

The recent data by HitWise that rated social networking sites, ranks Facebook as #1 with 50% traffic, and Twitter as #5 with a mere 1% is a perfect example of a data presented at a certain level of truth, leaving questions at all other levels.

1.	Facebook	50.15%
2.	YouTube	15.21%
3.	MySpace	15.08%
4.	Tagged	1.16%
5.	Twitter	1.14%

Here are the problems:

1. What counts as a visit on Facebook?  (Ex: If you click through 50 profiles, does that count as 50 visits?)
2. Twitter users for the most part use 3rd party applications to manage their accounts such as Seesmic Desktop and Hootsuite, not to mention mobile device access.  Surely, this type of access is not counted as a “visit.”
3. There are other uses for twitter such as search (again 3rd party apps can come into play), or just sit and watch your custom “lists” or groups and use them as a news feed – “visits” here do not account for this invaluable feature.
4. The specialized niches that each network serves (think LinkedIn), is severely undervalued by presenting this data as meaningful.
5. What type of traffic are going to these sites?  What are they doing there?  How is this important to me or my business?

Each point begs pertinent questions – what is the value of other networks?  Are visits the measure of usefulness?  How are the sites used?  Who is visiting these sites and what are they doing?  Nothing outlined by HitWise, comes close to providing answers.

The web is no different than any terrain – the more you know, the better you can use it to your advantage.  Thinking through what is presented here, we come to important conclusions – this is called being media literate – and can leverage the information in our favor.

Did you initially interpret the data as I did…that is, Facebook rules?

(In a little while, I’ll be posting another piece that uses the same data above. However, the discussion is about why you should not chase traffic, but make it come to you.)

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Subtitle:  Niche, niche, niche…everything!

The world wide web is all about being connected, no matter how granular you define your audience you’ll always still hit a larger whole.

You may ask, then what is the use?  Niche markets are a slice of a greater whole, but in fact you’ll see that your ’slice’ is still a part of a great whole.

My friend Joe, has a great example of this concept in action.  Here’s an excerpt from Joe’s upcoming book:

In June of 2009, the Cervantes Institute of Chicago launched a short story contest on their blog with the goal of engaging local writers and Spanish students in the Chicago area. What happened provides a perfect example of how our expectations of launching a Spanish-language promotion or website do not conform to the reality of the World Wide Web. Salvador Vergara, the librarian at the Cervantes Institute Chicago, told me how they never expected any entrants from outside of the U.S. just like so many domestic brand managers who launch Hispanic promotions online. Instead, they were shocked to find that over 70% of their entrants were not only from outside of the Chicago area but outside of the U.S. from countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Holland, Venezuela, the Ukraine and Spain.

Funny stuff.  They sought US Spanish speakers, and instead attracted an overwhelming global response.  A niche within a niche, reaching a greater whole.

You can make this work exponentially for you by identifying related areas to what you do, and make those lateral connections.

How about you?  Do you have any examples of reaching a certain target, only to get unexpected results?

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This must be one of the most visual compelling commercial put together that makes you want to go dip a couple of Tostitos chips.

“And Then There Was Salsa” from Frito Lay Dips on Vimeo.

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That bald guy, walking in front of the pharmacy is…you guessed it – Me!

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A couple of weeks ago I set the stage for a question:  Do you see yourself as a Hispanic man…or a man?

When you wake up in the morning and look in the mirror, who stares back at you?  A man or a Latino?  A woman or a Latina?  When is it that you walk into your culture…is it when you get dressed, or prepare your meal or turn on some music?

How would a Black man respond?  Does a white man see a white man or a man?

I wonder how many Latinos see themselves as men (or women) first, and then Latino – or vice versa.

Your answer may show how culture dominates your outlook, and I’d imagine differing generations would have varying degrees present.

Personally, when I wake up I’m disassociated with the conversation of  society – it’s just me and the new day.  Slowly the reality and conversations of the world catches up to me and I done the cloth of culture.

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Subtitle:  My commitment to blogging.

Blogs are an interesting format, for readers inadvertently discover that they at the whim (mercy?) of blog owners.  Happily, sometimes sadistically readers follow their chosen blog not blindly, but faithful that great content will reward their loyalty.  If unfulfilled, they dutifully leave in droves.

This weekend, I was reminded that I have limitations – I hit a wall and needed a few days to recover, thus the reason for this late post, as well as my absence yesterday here and other social media portals over the weekend.

From this, I’ve had some realizations:

1. My my voice is unique and cannot be duplicated by a ‘ghost writer.’ I’ve no intention of hiring a ghost writer (although it’s a fairly common practice, but not a fit for me right now); I’d rather let someone else blog here if I could not for an extended period.
2. Quality over quantity (related to the above).
3. I’m not stressing social media, but enjoying it.

I hope my regular readers were not deterred by 1 1/2 days of absence (I don’t usually blog over the weekend), and continue their readership and input here.  I’m here for the long haul and have many more new features and interesting content to offer.

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